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Armies marched directly to their target, possibly agreed on by the antagonists. Campaigns would therefore often be restricted to summer. This inevitably reduced the potential duration of campaigns, as citizens would need to return to their own professions (especially in the case of farmers, for example).
#Who drops the hoplite shield professional
Unable to maintain professional armies, the city-states relied on their own citizens to fight. The fragmentary nature of Ancient Greece, with many competing city-states, increased the frequency of conflict, but conversely limited the scale of warfare. The most well-known hoplites were the Spartans, who were trained from childhood in combat and warfare to become an exceptionally disciplined and superior fighting force. Towards the end of the classical period more sophistication seems to have occurred, culminating in the 'new model' army of the Ancient Macedonian Kingdom.Īlmost all the famous men of ancient Greece, including philosophers and playwrights, fought as hoplites. In the early Classical Period most battles appear to have primarily involved clashes of opposing phalanxes tactics were simple and casualties relatively low. The hoplite probably first appeared in the late seventh century BC. Since the equipment was provided by the individual hoplite, it had to be affordable by an average citizen. The tactics and techniques used in battle therefore had to be simple enough to be quickly mastered. A city-state could not afford a professional and/or standing army, so battles had to be fought by the citizens themselves. The hoplite was an effective solution to this situation. Warfare in ancient Greece appears, for the most part, to have consisted of set-piece battles between independent city-states. They were primarily armed as spear-men and fought in a phalanx formation. Hoplites were the citizen-soldiers of the Ancient Greek City-states. polytonic|ὁπλίται "hoplitai") derives from hoplon ( polytonic|ὅπλον, plural hopla polytonic|ὅπλα), meaning an item of armour or equipment, thus 'hoplite' may approximate to 'armoured man'. The word "hoplite" ( Greek: polytonic|ὁπλίτης "hoplitēs" pl.
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